Irish ISP Accused Of Copyright Violations Agrees To Implement Three Strikes
from the settle-me-this dept
Last year, the IFPI sued Irish ISP Eircom for copyright infringement. This was quite a leap. While the IFPI, RIAA and other such organizations had been pushing ISPs to filter file sharing or cut off file sharers via a three strikes approach, this was the first time that an ISP was being sued for being actually liable for the infringement as well. The "evidence" appeared to be some internal emails where Eircom employees joked about piracy. That seemed like a stretch... but rather than go through a full lawsuit, it appears Eircom has settled. Reader eoinmonty points us to the news that Eircom has agreed to implement a three strikes policy as a part of the settlement. Interesting that this comes just days after the neighboring UK announced that it will not require three strikes policies from UK ISPs. Of course, now the IFPI and the record labels have a framework: sue ISPs, and then push them to implement three strikes as a part of the settlement.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: ireland, isps, three strikes
Companies: eircom, ifpi
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Sounds fair...
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EU?
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Re: EU?
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Re: Re: EU?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081201/0245052983.shtml
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Re: Re: Re: EU?
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Re: EU?
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I ordered a broadband package with Eircom yesterday!
As a regular Techdirt reader though I know I can look forward to being wrongly accused and disconnected at the IFPI's whims!
Why can't Eircom focus their energy in providing me with a better product? €60 ($79 USD) for a download speed "upto" 7Mb and a 50Mb cap....and I'm being forced to take a phone line. Very, very poor!!
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Baseball
MLB is filing a suit against the entertainment industry claiming trademark infringement for the use of "Three Strikes"
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Eircom no more!
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Re: Eircom no more!
I've also already written to ComReg (Ombudsman for the telecommunications in Ireland) and the Minister for Communications & Energy, as this decision effectively removes a person's access to the internet at the whim of a commercial entity.
Let it also be noted, that the reports on this story note that the record labels will be using the services of a 3rd party to look for IP addresses infringing. Surely there's a vested interest on the part of this 3rd party to ensure that they find as many IP addresses as possible!
Saying that, when Eircom get the first list from the record labels, I can imagine they're going to balk at the number of paying customers they're going to have to cut off!
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"that no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened where the ruling may be subsequent."
so (on my reading) it probably *would* make Eircom's action unlawful, BUT first, the package would have to be voted for with this amendment (not certain: the EU Council is against it), *and* it then would have to be ratified into Irish law.
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They won't need to try this tack in the UK soon
Please Techdirt, some wisdom and insightful comment on this sorry state of affairs!
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Internet Cafe
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This Curious Rollover .... stinks of a setup
It looks like they consider themselves (still) a 5th branch of government, whose job it is to extort, penalise and harrass their captive 'service recipients' ... but they will very soon find the users voting with their feet on this one.
Good riddance to you, Eircom, enjoy a richly deserved bankruptcy!
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Eircom = crooks
Not only they cheat on their customers on broadband speed but they have the worst customer service, the most incompetent, biased and arrogant technical support and the most unethical and often illegal commercial practices.
They recently increased their prices! For what exactly? Nobody knows.
Because they are losing clients by the thousands as they are so bad and to compensate they make the customers pay for their lack of professionalism.
Every week, every evening the network is down or so slow that it goes to the speed of a modem (56kb/s).
When you call the “technical support” ( the ****** stable) , they are never aware of anything.
It looks like they harass their few clients left in order they leave to the competition.
The most expensive, the least reliable, the slowest, the worst customer and technical services and cherry on the cake, you can’t even get your bill properly as their “electronic” bill system is down every time you try to get your bill online.
Fed up of these ********. **** YOU EIR !
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Re: Eircom = crooks
http://ratemyisp.ie/ they are by far the worst noted provider (the only one with 230 1 star (out of 5) reviews out of 230 reviews.
100% bad reviews... Not bad eh..
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